With the tax bill passed through the Senate and headed to the House, senators are now set to begin work on ratifying the START treaty and passing the omnibus spending bill to fund the government for the next year.

Debate on the former officially starts Thursday morning. It needs 67 votes for ratification.As for the latter, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to bring the spending bill to the chamber’s floor as well, part of the Democrats’ plan to dual-track both bills in an effort to speed up the Senate’s pace with so little time left in the lame-duck. Democrats lose much of their majority when the new Congress is sworn in early in January – and control of the House switches over to Republican hands.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) tells NRO that he is worried that the New START treaty could be brought up this week via a “dual track” maneuver — tying its debate to the continuing resolution to fund the government.

“Sounds like they want to dual-track this with the terrible omnibus bill,” DeMint says. “I’m really concerned . . . . I’m not going to be sleeping very well this week.”

“Senator Reid can bring up both of them if he wants. It’s just a matter of whether we’re going to cooperate if the process is so bad.”